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Mobile commerce and online shopper behaviour in Thailand

Read below more about ecommerce growth, ecommerce sales and cross-border ecommerce in Thailand.

Ecommerce has been gaining momentum in Thailand, mostly thanks to the wider penetration of credit and debit cards, facilitating online payment. During the period of 2009-2014, the number of credit and debit cards in circulation increased from 45 million to 67 million. Mobile internet is also driving online spending; after China, Thailand has the largest number of mobile shoppers in the Asia Pacific region.
• Total Population
- 67 million
• Age Breakdown
- 47% of the population in Thailand are between 25 and 54.
• Religion
- Thailand is mostly a Buddhist country, a religion practiced by 93.6% of the population.
• Urban Population
- 48%
• Internet Penetration
- 29.7%
- 20.1 million people
• Mobile Penetration
- 49%
• Tablet Penetration
- 7%
• Smartphone Penetration
- 49% penetration
• Online Shoppers
- 7.3 million
• Ecommerce Sales
- USD 1 billion
• Ecommerce Penetration
- 10.9%
• Ecommerce CAGR
- 16% (2008 – 2013)
• Mobile Commerce
- The value of mobile commerce in Thailand is expected to reach USD 9 million by 2018.
- After China, Thailand has the largest number of mobile shoppers in the Asia Pacific region.
- The majority of the goods being sold through mobile commerce is clothing and fashion accessories at 26%, followed by phone applications at 22.4% and music at 18.8%.
• Mobile OS platforms
- Android is the preferred mobile operating system in Thailand at 45%, followed by Blackberry at 26%.
Cross-border Ecommerce Opportunities
• The average share of online purchases from websites outside of Thailand has increased to 31.5% from 20.0% in 2011 (+11.5%), and the share of online spending has grown to 29.9% from 20.0% (+9.9%).
• The most common purchases from non-Thai websites for Thai consumers were applications (19.9%), hotel accommodation (18.1%), and toys and gifts (15.7%).
• Thai businesses mostly export to China (14%), Japan (10%), US (9.7%), Indonesia (5.2%) and Malaysia (5.0%).
• Thai consumers mostly purchase from Japan (22%), China (18%), Malaysia (6.3%), US (5.3%) and South Korea (4.5%).
Language as a Key Driver
• Siamese Thai is the lone official language of Thailand, spoken by over 80% of the population.
• Minority languages include; Lao dialect of Isan, Yawi, and Chinese languages Mandarin, Cantonese and Teochew.
• English is spoken by over 17 million people in Thailand, 27% of the population.
• Outside Thailand, the largest concentration of Thai speakers is in the US, where there are an estimated 80.000 Thai immigrants in Los Angeles only. In Australia there are approximately 30.000 Thai speakers and in the UK there are approximately 16.000.
Read the complete text (including sources) about mobile commerce, online shopper behavior, ecommerce growth, ecommerce sales, cross-border ecommerce in Thailand in the downloadable country report.